The Montgomery County JobLink Career Center administers programs for youth through the Building Futures program. The follow services are available:

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT SERVICES

Tutoring, study skills training and instruction leading to secondary school completion, including dropout prevention strategies offers additional, special or remedial assistance, often on an individualized basis. 

Alternative secondary school offerings provide instruction leading to high school diploma.  Instruction may be provided outside of the traditional school setting, but programs must meet applicable state and local educational standards.  Offerings may also provide instruction leading to the receipt of certification that an individual has completed a level of education attainment equivalent to completion of high school (GED). 

EMPLOYMENT SERVICES

Work experiences are planned, structured learning experiences that take place in a workplace for a limited period of time and may be paid or unpaid.  Work experiences may take place in the private, for-profit sector; the non-profit sector; or the public sector. 

Work experiences are designed to enable youth to gain exposure to the working world and its requirements.  Work experiences are appropriate and desirable activities for many youth throughout the year, as determined by the youth’s Individual Service Strategy (ISS).  Work experiences should help youth acquire the personal attributes, knowledge, and skills needed to obtain a job and advance in employment.

The purpose is to provide the participant with the opportunities for career exploration and skill development and is not to benefit the employer, although the employer may, in fact, benefit from activities performed by the youth.  Youth funds may be used to pay wages and related benefits for work experiences in the public, private, for-profit or non-profit sectors when an employee/employer relationship has been established (as determined under the Fair Labor Standards Act), and where the objective assessment and Individual Service Strategy indicate that a Work Experiences element is appropriate. 

Work experiences may be subsidized or unsubsidized and may include the following: 

• Instruction in employability skills or generic workplace skills such as those identified by the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS);

• Exposure to various aspects of an industry;

• Progressively more complex tasks;

• Internships and job shadowing;

• The integration of basic academic skills into work activities;

• Supported work, work adjustment, and other transition activities;

• Entrepreneurship;

• Service learning;

• Paid and unpaid community service: and

• Other activities designed to achieve the goals of the work experiences element. 

The Work Experiences element may include on-the-job training for youth 18 or older.

Occupational Skill Training provides instruction, usually in a classroom setting, designed to provide individuals with technical skills and/or information required to perform a specific job or groups of jobs.  Training must be tied to an occupational code. 

Summer Youth Employment Opportunities provide direct linkages to academic and occupational learning, and may provide other elements and strategies, as appropriate, to serve the needs and goals of participants. 

Summer Employment Opportunities are  linked with academic and occupational learning.  The approach is often referred to as “work-based learning” or “contextual learning.”  Learning may occur totally at the employment site or may involve a classroom component to supplement the youth’s work assignment.  Academic learning is defined as the enhancement of the traditional education skills of reading, mathematics, and writing.  Occupational learning involves skills that are necessary to perform specific job tasks. 

In North Carolina, Summer Employment Opportunities linked to academic and occupational learning make available subsidized or unsubsidized jobs for youth during the months of May – September.  Summer Employment Opportunities create an employer/employee relationship, requiring the payment of a wage.  The wage rate will be no less than the current federal minimum hourly wage or the prevailing wage rate, which ever is higher.  Summer Employment Opportunities subsidized with WIA funds may take place in the private for-profit sector; the private non-profit sector; or the public sector.  To the extent possible, the experience provided by the assigned site should be consistent with the youth’s career interests/goal as identified in the youth’s Individualized Service Strategy (ISS). 

In developing Summer Employment Opportunities for youth in the private for-profit sector, we must be mindful that certain vulnerabilities are inherent in this activity.  Some examples include: 

• the occurrence or perception of favoritism shown to one employer over another;

• placing low-income youth in subsidized jobs that they can obtain on their own;

• displacing low-income youth from jobs that they normally secure in the summer.

To avoid these vulnerabilities, the selection of private employers to participate in this activity shall be based on an objective analysis of the relative “value-added” contributions to the youth’s development the employer is willing to make.  Examples of such contributions might include: 

• Structured development/refinement of work maturity skills;

• Integration of work and learning;

• Provision of educational services;

• Exposure to skill training;

• Mentoring;

• Vocational exploration/career guidance;

Commitment to hire the youth in a part-time or full-time job upon successful completion of the Summer Employment Opportunity, substantial progress in or graduation from high school, or both.  This job must be compatible with the youth’s occupational interest. 

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

Adult mentoring is the pairing of a youth with a caring adult in a one-to-one relationship, challenging the youth to do well, often helping the youth make the connection between school and work, and providing first-hand exposure to the world of work.  Typically, mentors become advocates for the youth, working in consultation with the youth’s teacher(s), supervisor, counselor/caseworker and parent(s), as appropriate.  Adult mentoring services are required for a duration of at least twelve months, that may occur both during and after program participation. 

Comprehensive guidance and counseling is primarily provided to assist a youth in achieving success in school and at the workplace.  Assistance may include drug and alcohol abuse counseling, as well as referrals to counseling, as appropriate to the needs of the individual youth.  Services may be provided on an individual or group basis, using a variety of processes and techniques. 

Leadership Development Opportunities may include community service and peer-centered activities encouraging responsibility, employability and other positive social behaviors during the non-school hours, as appropriate. 

Leadership opportunities for youth may include:

• Exposure to post-secondary educational opportunities;

• Community and service learning projects;

• Peer-centered activities, including peer mentoring and tutoring;

• Organizational and team work training, including team leadership training;

• Training in decision-making, including determining priorities; and

• Citizenship training, including life skills training such as parenting, work behavior training and budgeting of resources;

Positive social behaviors are outcomes of leadership opportunities, often referred to as soft skills, which are incorporated by many local programs as part of their menu of services.  Positive social behaviors focus on areas that may include the following:

• Positive attitudinal development;

• Self-esteem building;

• Openness to working with individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds;

• Maintaining healthy lifestyles, including being alcohol and drug free;

• Maintaining positive relationships with responsible adults and peers, and contributing to the well being of one’s community, including voting;

• Maintaining a commitment to learning and academic success;

• Avoiding delinquency;

• Postponed and responsible parenting; and

• Positive job attitudes and work skills.

Supportive Services means services such as transportation, child care, dependent care, housing and needs-related payments that are necessary to enable an individual to participate in WIA.  For youth, supportive services may also include: 

• Linkages to community services;

• Assistance with transportation;

• Assistance with child care and dependent care;

• Assistance with housing costs;

• Referrals to medical services; and

• Assistance with uniforms or other appropriate work attire and work-related tool costs, including such items as eye glasses and protective gear. 

Follow-up Services for youth may include:

• Leadership development activities;

• Supportive services;

• Regular contact with a youth participant’s employer, including assistance in addressing work-related problems that arise;

• Assistance in securing better paying jobs, career development and further education;

• Work-related peer support groups;

• Adult mentoring; and

• Tracking the progress of youth in employment after training.

All youth must receive some form of follow-up services for a minimum duration of 12 months.